The Castillo de San Marcos (Spanish for “St. Mark’s Castle”) is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States; it is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in St. Augustine, Florida. It was designed by the Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza, with construction beginning in 1672, 107 years after the city’s founding The fort’s construction was ordered by Governor Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega after a raid by the English privateer Robert Searles in 1668 that destroyed much of St. Augustine and damaged the existing wooden fort. Work proceeded under the administration of Guerra’s successor, Manuel de Cendoya in 1671, and the first coquinas stones were laid in 1672. The construction of the core of the current fortress was completed in 1695, although it would undergo many alterations and renovations over the centuries.
Cannons had little effect on the walls of the fort, because the coquina masonry was very effective at absorbing the impact of cannonballs causing them to sink into the walls, rather than shattering or puncturing them.
The men of the fort.
The Roman Catholic faith was a big part of Spanish life at the fort and in the New World.
